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The Voices & Layers of Us: What We Carry Forward

Left to right: Esther Marfo, Natasha Issa, Lisa Cesaria, Simone Atungo, Julia Satov and Brian Mereweather

By Simone Atungo, MES, ICD.D, AccBD, executive and community leader and CEO of Oneura Consulting, appointed to Roche Canada’s Patient Co-Creation Council in 2026 and Julia Satov M.Ed, Inclusion & Belonging Leader at Roche Canada

In the intersection of healthcare and humanity, there are stories that often remain unseen, layered, or left unspoken. Roche Canada’s Inclusion & Belonging Leader and Inclusion & Belonging Leadership Council convened a powerful and intimate fireside panel conversation: From the Voices and Layers of Us: Women, Black Experiences,Caregiving & Allies.

Held in recognition of Black History Month and International Women’s Day, this session served as more than a corporate event; it became a space for deep listening. We were honoured to be joined by Simone Atungo, a seasoned executive with over 30 years of leadership and a soon-to-be member of Roche Canada’s Patient Co-Creation Council, alongside Lisa Cesario, Medical Strategy Director and Inclusion & Belonging Chair of the Women Impact Network, and Natasha Essa, ORDP Analyst and Co-Chair of Ladies of African Descent.

Together, they grounded the conversation in two recent Canadian publications:

  • Voices Unheard: Canada’s First National Health Survey of Black Women and Girls (November 2025)

  • Addressing Gaps in Women’s Health Care Would Add Billions to Canada’s Economy (November 2026)

The dialogue centered on three critical themes that define the future of health equity.

1. The Realities of Intersectionality: Beyond Biology

We explored how women’s health experiences are shaped by overlapping identities: race, culture, caregiving, professional demands, and socioeconomic context. These factors are not additive; they are compounding.

For many women, age, race, lived experience and culture are not peripheral to care; they are central. Panelists reflected on how these identities influenced the challenges of having symptoms believed, maintaining dignity, and ensuring a clinical space feels culturally safe. Trust is not a given; it is a bond often strained by a history of dismissal.

The "tension of the double-shift" was a recurring theme. Panelists spoke candidly about managing their own health while carrying the weight of children, aging parents, and communities - all while leading in demanding professional roles. The result? Personal health moves to the bottom of the list. Symptoms are minimized, and care is sought only when urgency makes it unavoidable.

The takeaway: If we are serious about advancing health, we must design systems for the real complexity of women’s lives and lived experiences.

2. The Invisible Labour: The Cost of Navigating Bias

Patient inclusive care cannot be achieved if the invisible work that sustains families and institutions is not factored in. Panelists addressed how being a woman, and the layers of race and being a caregiver, creates a multiplier effect of barriers.

This invisible labour shows up as:

  • Emotional Preparation: The mental work required before entering a healthcare setting, mitigating historical context and trust;

  • System Navigation: The additional time spent coordinating fragmented care pathways through caregiving or understanding complex processes; 

  • Self-Monitoring: The constant effort required to navigate bias without being perceived as challenging.

This labour is rarely validated and almost never appears in a care plan, yet it profoundly shapes burnout risk and long-term health outcomes. In the workplace, these dynamics persist. Caregiving is often misinterpreted as a lack of commitment, and the emotional labour of navigating race and gender dynamics goes unrecognized, influencing promotion opportunities and whose wellbeing is prioritized.

The takeaway: Patient-inclusive care remains incomplete if we fail to recognize and account for the invisible labour that women carry as caregivers to sustain families and maintain professionalism in their leadership roles.

3. What Patients Need Next Really Means

For healthcare and life sciences stakeholders, the challenge is to move beyond intent toward practice. What patients need next extends far beyond a prescription – it addresses the experience of the entire journey.

Patients need systems designed around their own intersections of life —not assumptions about their time, trust, or health literacy. Advocating for this means moving upstream by:

  • Simplifying Pathways: Designing care that is easier to navigate and culturally grounded in the layered needs of patients

  • Meaningful Co-creation: Engaging women, and the intersections of women, as collaborators in clinical research and service design, not as recipients of decisions and models

  • Intentional Innovation: Ensuring science is designed to reach those who have historically been underserved.

The reflective takeaway for Canadian healthcare is: How are we designing systems for the intersections of our patients?

What We Carry Forward

Progress begins with proximity to the patient voice and the courage to lean into discomfort. At Roche Canada, we believe that inclusion and belonging are not side conversations—they are the core enablers of better health outcomes and a more sustainable healthcare system.

We remain committed to listening, learning, and co-creating so that the voices and layers of us are not just heard, but meaningfully reflected in how we lead and care into what we carry forward.